Utopia

In the story with the Stanford student saying that he hopes his grandchildren get to volunteer in the same homeless shelter, I don't think that he meant that he wants their to still be the problmem of homelessness in our society. Instead I see him as being realistic. I believe that thinking of our world as a place of utopia is an impractical way of thinking. The Stanford student was focusing more on the life lessons that were learned from his volunteering as a whole, not just the effort to stop homelessness. He wants the lessons such as being completely selfless to those less fortunate, seeing the joy it brings to yourself and others, and being able to use this wisdom throughout your life and pass them on to future generations.

The student had a realistic view on life. Knowing that although his volunteer work could not alone change the course of homelessness, he persued anyway. Knowing that a long way down the road it may be possible for homelessness would disappear but that there will ALWAYS be another cause and reason to stand up for. This is why the student wanted his grandchildren to volunteer. In order to better appreciate the world that we have, the luxuries that were given to us and to understand that real meaning and purpose we need to give back to our community we need to empathize with those less fortunate. I do not mean to sound pessimistic, I just dont see our society reaching utopia. All we can do is help in anyway we can now, having faith that somewhere down the road it will lead to a better place.